Here's the situation. I have a '94 Civic LX 1.5L. Head gasket blew and I took it in for service. I have a service plan-type warranty on the car, so they're paying for the head gasket fix. Since the car has 104k, I requested that they also change the timing belt and water pump.

Since everything was going to be apart, I figured I'd just have to pay for parts and minimal labor to change the water pump. I based this theory on the fact that the water pump is timing belt driven, and only attached by 4 bolts. Because the timing belt was already off, I didn't think it would take too long for the tech to swap the pump.

Anyways. I get my bill, and they're trying to charge me 2.6 hours for a timing belt & water pump remove and reinstall. This seems very shady to me. Not only did they overbill the warranty company for excess charges for the covered work, they're trying to charge me this crazy amount for changing the timing belt, which SHOULD be part of the head gasket repar...

So my question is this. If the timing belt is already off, how long should it take to change the water pump? 30 minutes tops?

If you could also post if you work as a mechanic or at a dealer, that would be great. This will eventually end up in court, as I will most likely end up suing the dealer I bought the car from. Long story, but to summarize, I think the car had coolant/head gasket issues when I bought it... The HG blew 6 days later.

Thanks!

 

all i know is that is does not take more than 2 hours trying to replace something, unless your an idiot and dont know what the hell your doing
Sounds like the Dealer is trying to get your money, Don't let 'em get you

 

i own a shop and we recommend to the customer to change these items free of charge. thats just good buisness.

 

Any more thoughts on this?

 

You DONT necessarily have to remove the whole timing belt to change headgaskets...
I am a tech and used to work at a Honda dealership. When I did a Headgasket and the customer declined a new waterpump/timing belt, I would just loosen the belt with the tensioner to remove the head w/o removing the T belt completely...

So IMO, They are not overcharging you in that aspect...

To change the headgasket,you do not have to completely remove the t-belt,just loosen it.
To change the t-belt and water pump,you have to remove all the accessory belts(power steering,A/C, and Alt). Then remove the crank pulley...

Then you remove All the T-belt covers and drain the coolant partially so you can change the waterpump...Not to mention you have to support the engine from underneath so you can remove the motor mount for the new timing belt...
2.6 hours for labor is not excessive...Even though if your good,you can do a complete T-belt and water pump in less than an hour...
I got them down to about 45 minutes myself

 

Labor is usually done by the book. Repair shops have a book that lists the amount of 'time' required to do a certain job on a vehicle. It doesn't matter how long it takes a tech to do it, the shop still makes you pay for how long the book says it takes. I don't know if it's changed in the 4 years since I was last in Auto-Tech, but that's the way it was taught to me.